


The Hills Have Eyes

by Ava_The_Stargazer



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Manipulative Rachel, One-Sided Relationship, Rachel and Nathan become BFFs and it's not healthy, Suicide Attempt, Toxic Friend Influence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2018-12-30 23:13:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12119334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ava_The_Stargazer/pseuds/Ava_The_Stargazer
Summary: Rachel Amber has fascinated Nathan ever since they met.Also known as an excuse to explore the possible relationship between the sweetheart and the scourge of Arcadia Bay.





	1. Beginnings

Rachel Amber has fascinated Nathan ever since they met.

She’s like a butterfly, beautiful and delicate, flitting between the different social cliques without a care in the world. She flutters up to him one day, all sunset gold hair and sparkling hazel eyes. 

“Hey, I’m Rachel!” Her voice is sweet and somehow energizing. “You’re Nathan, right? I think we have photography together.”

He leans back against the picnic table he’s currently seated at. He can see his best friend Victoria giving Rachel’s clothes a once over before scrunching up her nose.

He can see why. Victoria is all clean, pressed skirts and blouses, floral prints and preppy collars. Rachel is anything but, with torn jeans, ripped flannel and scuffed leather boots. 

He tears his attention away from Victoria. “Yeah. I’ve seen you in there before.”

She grins, and it’s magnetizing. “I just wanted to say, I saw some of your portfolio. You’re  _ really _ good.” A blue feather earring dangles from her right ear.

He huffs, and he can feel his cheeks warm ever so slightly. “Thanks.”

She opens her mouth to say something, but notices something behind Nathan’s back. Her grin get even wider and she turns back to Nathan. “Oh, hey, I gotta run. See you in class!” And like that, she’s gone, dashing past the picnic table. Nathan turns and follows her with his eyes, watching as she runs up to a tall girl with blue hair. 

Suddenly, he can’t wait for school to start.

Two weeks and one photography assignment later, Nathan snaps a photo of Rachel beaming on the bleachers by the football field. 

Jefferson had made them partners, told them to take pictures of each other in the other’s photography style. Stylistically, Rachel’s photography is the exact opposite of his. Her photos are full of life and color, his lonely and monochromatic. 

“We compliment each other.” Rachel had told him one day in class.  Nathan can’t help but think she’s right.

It’s a chilly Autumn day, and Rachel’s wearing jean shorts and tights.

“Aren’t you cold?”

_ Click _ , goes his camera.

Rachel grins, and the breeze makes her blue feather flutter. “Nah.”

_ Click. _

He peeks out from behind his camera. “You sure? Pretty sure I just saw you shiver.”

Rachel leans back against the bleachers. There's a shift of her hip, a flick of her hair. “Only because I’m awed at being in the presence of the  _ King _ of Blackwell.” She drawls, her tone casual.

He snorts. “ _ King.  _ Funny.”

_ Click. _


	2. Paranoia

Nathan’s in biology, and he can’t focus.

He can’t do much of anything except bounce his legs and scribble in his notebook. He can’t think straight right now, his thoughts racing at a thousand miles per hour, the voice of the professor swimming through his mind. He’s got too much energy to deal with this class right now, and all he wants is to get out of the room so he can skip calculus ( _ screw calc, he thinks)  _ and sprint around the track a few times to let off the excess energy. 

He knows he must look like a piece of work right now, from the looks the other students are giving him. He can almost see Victoria roll her eyes in exasperation, running a hand through her pixie cut and sighing.

“You didn’t take your meds today, didn’t you?” She’d say, shifting the weight of her bookbag.

She’d be absolutely right, as usual. He’d open his mouth. “Yeah but I just didn’t feel like taking them today I feel great today and I don’t think I nee-” 

Victoria would sigh and flop down onto the picnic table, pulling out her phone and shaking her head. “You’re impossible, Nate.”

The scribbling on the notebook stops. 

He can kind of hear what the teacher is talking about. Something about adaptations.

“The poison dart frog has developed the bright blue coloration to keep predators away.” She drones on. “It serves as a warning, like a giant sign saying ‘I am poisonous! Stay away!’” 

Nathan doesn’t bother listening to the rest. He’s too busy staring at the picture of little blue frog in his textbook. 

Its color reminds him of Rachel’s feather.


	3. Suggestions

He and Rachel are out in the park, taking the final few pictures for their project. They’re doing their shoot under a beautiful old oak tree with graceful branches. _It’s almost too pretty to be real_ , Nathan thinks. He leans against it, shadows and light dappled on his face. He lifts the cigarette to his lips, taking a drag and blowing the smoke out

Rachel’s leaning in close, snapping pictures like crazy. He can feel the scowl she’d instructed him to wear slipping.

“I think we’ve got enough pictures, Rachel.”

She smiles and lets her camera hang around her neck. “Sorry. Got carried away.”

Her eyes are serious. “It’s just-” She leans in close to him, reaching out a hand and ghosting it over his cheekbone. He can feel his pulse quicken, and his breath catches in his throat. “You’ve got an amazing face.”

He’s not sure what to say. “Th-Thanks?”

She giggles. “That sounded weird. What I meant was that you could be a model. You’ve got a…” She glances off into the distance, motioning with her hand in an attempt to find the right words. “... _brooding_ look to you. Photographers go crazy for that.”

He rolls his neck, blowing smoke from his nose. “I don’t know. I think I want to stay behind the camera for now.”

She shrugs. “Just saying. You’d be a hit down in Cali.”

“You sure talk about Cali a lot.”

“I was born there. I miss it.”

“Ah.” Nathan’s been down to California a few times. He’s got cousins down in the San Francisco area. He remembers how chaotic the streets were, how loud and colorful and _alive_ they were, pulsing with life in every single nook and cranny. His fingers had itched for his camera then. He’d begged Sean to let him take it. He’s beginning to realize that begging never worked on him.

He takes another drag of his cigarette, tilting his head back and blowing smoke rings.

Rachel’s eyes go wide and he hands twitch down to the sides of her camera. “Dude, that looked hella cool. Do it again!”

He laughs a little bit, coughing on the smoke still in his lungs. “Hella?”

“Hush. I wanna get a picture.”

“Whatever, Rach.”

He lifts the cigarette up to his lips and tilts his head back. Smoke swirls around him like a halo. Rachel lifts her camera, grinning. “Perfect.”

_Click._


	4. Invitation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HO-LY SHEIT GUYS I'M SO SORRY.
> 
> I know it's been like, forever, but I was just kind of in a writer's block for this story. I pretty much waited for the next ep to come out to get me back into a LiS mood. I'm gonna post a long chapter next to make up, because oh my goodness do I feel bad.

They turn in the project a day before it’s due. They get an A .

Even after the project ends, Nathan still hangs around Rachel.

She sidles up to him in the hallway on a Friday, her expression coy and her eyes sparkling with mirth.

“So, Nate.”

His eyes flick up from the floor to Rachel’s face. _No one_ has ever called him Nate aside from Victoria and Kris. Somehow, he doesn’t mind Rachel does it.

“I was thiiiiinking-”

A corner of his mouth quirked up. “That’s a dangerous thing to do, Rachel.”

She gives him a look. “Hah-hah, muy funny. Anyways, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to hang out with me at my dorm.”

He instantly says yes, and he curses his mouth for working faster than his brain. The tips of his ears turn red and Rachel laughs.

(Nathan’s begun to realize that Rachel’s laugh is the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard. It’s hearty and clear and it makes him want to laugh right alongside her.)

“You’re eager.” She says, and her eyes sparkle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nate's such a virgin in this. Jesus, boy, get ya crap together.


End file.
